The harvest campaign is underway in Ukraine, including in the Crimea and several southern territories. The first tons of early cereals have been delivered to elevators.
However, dispatches from the field present a picture which is anything but optimistic. The Day’s Danylo KLIAKHIN reports low yields on the 30,000 hectares so far harvested in Mykolayiv oblast (with a total of 630,000 ha of wheat planted): 12 centners per hectare. The local state administration blames the drought and refers to economic factors: lack of mineral fertilizer and pesticides. All told, it is expected to harvest up to 15 centners per hectare in the oblast, meaning that the prescribed quota of a million tons of wheat will not be met.
Reports from Kherson oblast are not encouraging either. While it was planned to harvest 1,230,000 tons of grain, The Day’s Valery BOYANZHU refers to some experts believing that the harvested amount will be at least 400,000 tons lower. The reasons are the same: dry weather and lack of mineral fertilizer and fuel, resulting in delayed harvesting. Volodymyr Avramenko, head of the oblast state administration’s chief directorate for agriculture and food supplies, assures that 2,500 combine harvesters are involved, along with 300 borrowed from other regions, yet this combined effort is not likely to exceed 20 centners/ha.
With last year’s bitter experience when the oblast was practically left without grain reserves due to bureaucratic ineptitude, Zaporizhzhia oblast’s state administration has taken precautions this year. The Day’s Dmytro BROVKIN reports that the oblast’s villages received UAH 30 million worth of government loans against harvest yields. The state administration has leased out 30 combine harvesters and supplied fertilizer. The recently appointed governor, Oleksiy Kucherenko, feels certain this year will not be a hungry one in Zaporizhzhia. Total grain intake is estimated at 1,725,000 tons. The governor’s subordinates are as optimistic, of course. Borys Kravchenko, first deputy head of regional agribusiness department, is confident that despite pessimistic forecasts by those opposed to the President’s reform, this year’s grain harvest will be collected “to the last ear.”
Well, it is just possible that the young governor will use his energy to mobilize the region to carry out the harvest campaign quickly and efficiently, but he is not likely to raise yields, the foundations of which were laid earlier. Tentative estimates show that the harvest will not exceed 25 c/ha, a very low index compared to Soviet times.
Vasyl SOROKA, head of the departments for plant and seed breeding markets of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy, told The Day that grain yields in Ukraine have declined for the past several years. In 1998, an average of 20.8 c/ha was harvested; in 1999, it was 20.5 c/ha. This year is expected to be the same as last, maybe a little lower. Why? Mr. Soroka cited the following statistic: in better times, a total of 5 million tons of mineral fertilizer were spread. Now it is 300,000- 400,000 — less that a tenth.
“Grain and grain resources are politics,” Vasyl Soroka pointed out. “We all know that last year’s chaotic prices allowed business structures to buy grain from the producers for token money: UAH 230-300 per ton. In the fall and winter this grain was sold for UAH 750-800. To prevent this from recurring, the President recently signed an edict on priority measures to stimulate the production and development of the grain market. In the first place, it will help stabilize bread prices and allow the peasantry to get more firmly on their feet.”
The Day: How long do you think this edict will take to be fully implemented?
“It must work already this season. I think that the President’s intervention will make it possible to solve many problems that were earlier dead-end ones.
